Unemployment 'to reduce next year'

Date: 24th December 2009

Next year will see a decline in the number of people out of work in Britain, an employment expert has claimed.

Phil Flaxton, chief executive of Work Wise UK, said that more white collar workers have been affected by the current recession than in previous periods of economic problems.

He added that although unemployment is likely to rise in the first quarter of 2010, it will taper off later in the year and is not expected to reach three million as had been predicted.

Mr Flaxton cited a recent Confederation of British Industry report which suggested that the number of people out of work would peak at 2.8 million next year.

"One has to remember that it is not good if you are one of those 2.8 million but unemployment has been very low over the last decade and 2.8 million is not as high a figure as [we have seen] over the last decade," he explained.

The comments come days after official data revealed that the UK is still in recession, with GDP declining in the third quarter of 2009.